A Surrey woman has been sentenced to 90 days in jail and two years probation after being found guilty of defrauding K.B. Woodward Elementary’s Parent Advisory Council.

Tuyet Ngo, who was sentenced in Surrey Provincial Court on Thursday (Aug. 23), has also been ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $20,314.36.

Ngo, who is in her early 30s, was found guilty of using a forged document, and fraud over $5,000.

The Whalley elementary school contacted police in September, 2016 to report its PAC had been defrauded of more than $35,000.

“The victims in this incident were the students of K.B. Woodward and the surrounding neighbourhood,” Surrey RCMP Corporal Scotty Schumann said in July of 2017 when charges were laid. “It was heartening to see businesses, individuals and the K.B. Woodward school community come together afterwards to raise funds to cover the losses.”

K.B. Woodward had set up a gofundme account in response, aiming to raise $34,000 to build a playground the missing money had been earmarked for, through three years of bottle drives, book and chocolate sales and other fundraising efforts.

Meantime, in 2016, $20,000 disappeared from the PAC at Serpentine Heights Elementary in Guildford but police did not believe the two cases are connected.

“Taking money from kids, really, is what it amounts to,” Surrey School District spokesman Doug Strachan said at the time these stories broke in 2016.